HAYS, Kan. (December 3, 2023) - The Colorado State University Pueblo wrestling team competed Saturday at the Bob Smith Open, hosted by Fort Hays State University and Ben Gould (Sr., Canyon Country, Calif.) led the ThunderWolves charge and cruised to the 197-pounds title.

Cyruss Meeks (Jr., Casper, Wyo.) finished fourth in the 157-pound bracket and Dominick Castro (Fr., Pueblo, Colo.) and Donn Greer (So., Soledad, Calif.) placed fifth in their respective brackets.

For Gould in the 197 weight class, he went 5-0 and started his day with back-to-back wins by fall. The first came against Wil Aucoin of Adams State at 6:28. In his next match against Marcel Gordon of Colorado State, Gould was able to win by pin at 2:09.

In his third match, Gould shutout Nebraska-Kearney's Tre Daro 7-0 and took down Tereus Henry from host-FHSU 4-2.

In the championship bout against Ben Tonnessen of Adams State, Gould wrestled to a 10-6 victory.

At 157 pounds, Meeks scored five straight wins after falling in the opening match 4-2 against Roberto Bautista of Nebraska-Kearney.

In his next match, Meeks took down Colten Tyra from Otero College 13-0 and followed it up with a 13-7 victory over FHSU's Hunter Harris.

Meeks earned a TB-1 16-3 victory versus Micah Castro from Northwest Kansas and would defeat Trinidad State's Sebastian Freeman 11-2.

He earned a TF win 19-2 over Emanuel Ramos of Air Force to move into the third place match.

Meeks was unable to compete against Tyler Collins from Nebraska-Kearney and took home fourth place.

At 125 pounds, Castro picked up a 4-0 win over AB Stokes before falling in SV-1 8-5 to Nico Tocci of Air Force.

In his first bout in the consolation side of the bracket, Castro rebounded for a win by fall (3:40) over Alex Martinez from Trinidad State.

Castro would fall at 3:17 against Jayce Caviness from Oklahoma State and bounced back with a win by tech-fall 18-2 over Christian Forbes.

In the fifth place match, Castro faced Ivan Lazo from Nebraska-Kearney and won 13-7.

Anthony Nichols (R-Sr., Grand Coulee, Wash.) went 2-2 on the day at 149 pounds and picked up wins over Caden Adkinson from Schriener University and Kayden Blake from Barton CC.

At 184 pounds, Greer picked up a first round win 10-3 over Aidan Johnson from Fort Hays State and in his next match, he came away with a 1-0 win against Lazaro Crespo of Northwest Kansas.

In his next outing against Josh Cordio from Air Force, Greer fell 9-3 and in the fifth place match, his opponent Owen Heiser of Air Force, was unable to compete and no contest was scored.

Elijah Valdez (Sr., Colorado Springs, Colo.) went 4-2 on the day and picked up two wins by fall and one tech-fall victory.

Valdez pinned Seth Rill from Schriener University at 3:43 before dropping a hard-fought 2-1 decision against eventual champion in Adams State's Aaden Valdez.

He earned a 19-3 tech-fall win against UNK's Cameron Graham and his second win by fall came versus Jacob Mathews at 1:12.

Several other CSU Pueblo wrestlers competed and were unattached. 

For full bracket results, click HERE.

Up next, CSU Pueblo will travel to Phoenix, Arizona on December 16 and compete at the Desert Duals.